May is World Biodiversity Month, and May 22 is the International Biodiversity Day. On this occasion, the Puklyovtsite and the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation are organizing four virtual tournaments to draw the attention of the youngest to the topic of conservation of endangered species in Bulgaria.
Each virtual tournament focuses on a specific endangered species. The avocet is the focus of the tournament, which will take place on May 14. The deer (Cervidae) in Bulgaria are the topic of the second tournament – on May 21. The narrow-leaved peony (Paeonia tenuifolia) and the chamois are the main characters in the tournaments on May 27 and June 4.
Participation in the tournaments is free, but pre-registration is required. Thanks to the financial support of Vivacom, each tournament will be donated the amount of BGN 250 for the protection of the respective species, and if the participating teams manage to collect 3,000 points within the tournament, the donated amount will be doubled.
To be eligible for the tournament the teams must consist of 4 children in fourth or lower grade, who play with Puklyovtsite online and away from each other. The tasks that the children will solve are related to the teaching material in mathematics and Bulgarian for third grade and require a high degree of cooperation.
For Puklyovtsite:
Pukylovtsite are digital games that aim to teach children to work in a team. They build on the teaching material from first to fourth grade and use a special teaching methodology developed with experts from Sofia University. The characters in the game fight with various environmental problems such as water and air pollution, separate waste collection, deforestation. In this way, children learn to \“care\“ about others and the world around them (hence the name of the game – it is derived from the Bulgarian slang expression for “I care” – „пука ми“/puka mi).
Puklyovtsite can now be played online, alone at home. The goal is the children to be able to practice the learned material through play – alone or in a team with the whole family. More information about Puklyovtsite, who are members of the Coalition for Media Literacy, can be found here.